Today I am going to
review some of the suggestions on creating a great business plan and pitch from
some experts in those regards. Kevin
Geiger is known for several films including Chicken
Little, and Species. Despite his primary focus being in digital
arts and film he is well versed in the knowledge needed to develop an indie
film business plan. In the video below
he discusses some of the most important aspects of the business and that
alludes to what one has to know about the actual business plan for an indie
film before they can be prepared to pitch it to any investors or production
companies.
His first suggestion
is that you must have a strong business plan as well as a strong creative plan. This goes with any type of business. Often the idea of what the business is or the
creator’s vision is more fleshed out that the actual ways in which the idea
will be a successful business. In other words, creators often know what they
want to create and how it will be awesome but they fail to communicate how it will
generate profits. That is the Major
result of any business and without knowing how your company will make money you
can easily develop a faulty business plan.
Another great tip that was mentioned in the video is to develop a strong
advisory team that is not being compensated.
This makes a great deal of sense but can be overlooked. Plenty of people have started businesses
before in all the fields and markets that we can think of, it is inefficient to
try to reinvent the wheel so getting advisers that can guide you during those situations
where the lack of experience can hinder your progress in growing the
business. Also Investors are seeking to
limit risk as much as possible, what better way to do that than to have people
who know how to make a successful business be a part of your team. Now, the
lack of compensation keeps them honest and objective, something that can be overlooked,
the minute your advisers start receiving some compensation they are less likely
to be as opinionated and find less scrutiny in your work for various reasons.
David S. Rose is a “serial entrepreneur” and the chairman of the New York Angels
investment group. He has several tech startups under his belt
and in the ted talk linked he addresses 10 key things that one must convey to
investors in their pitch. The first
thing that he mentions is that the investor must be sold on “you” and you, in
order to get any kind of investments, must sell your “integrity. Those were the two biggest points that he
insisted were necessary for any investors.
He discusses how you can show experience in the market, or
the ability to run a company without having direct experience with a startup.
Using the experience you have in other arenas you can merge the skills necessary
for a good leader and entrepreneur and become much more marketable to potential
investors.
These videos were very short but they met the challenge of
providing a large amount of quality information in the amount of time that one
might get when speaking with investors and venture capitalists. Utilizing this knowledge will greatly improve
a business plan and its chances for success.
